My Name is Scruffy
by Katy M VT
Summary: Supernatural.  Sequel to What if The Benders.  Will Sam live the rest of his life as a dog, or will his family save him from the crazy family?  Chapter 4 of 4 up.
1. Chapter 1

Takes place a year after the end of What if the Benders.

Scruffy was laying out in the sun. Missy was sitting on the porch. The rest of the family was in town, but as soon as they had realized that Scruffy really thought he was a dog, they pretty much left him alone. At first they thought he was faking, but soon it became clear he wasn't.

Missy had really cleaned up her act in the last year. There was this boy at school she really liked. Her crazy family embarrassed her. She knew hunting people was wrong. They had skipped last year's hunt because Kathleen had died at a bank robbery and Jared had been distraught. They were fixing for another one, though. That's why they were in town.

Missy sighed. She didn't think there was anything she could do to stop it. If she tried to go against her family, she was afraid they would kill her. She would leave as soon as she could, though. Maybe Tommy would run off with her. She smiled at that thought.

As if her thoughts had conjured him, she saw him approaching down the long road to their house. He knew where she lived, because she got off the bus before him. Was he here to see her? All those thoughts flew out of her head when Scruffy started barking. He tore off towards the kid and tackled him. Missy ran behind him and pulled Scruffy off yelling at him.

"Missy, what's going on?" Tommy asked.

There was no way to explain what was going on without looking like a freak or without getting her family in serious trouble. She wanted the killings to stop. She wanted a normal family. But, she loved her family and didn't want them to get in any trouble. She let Scruffy go, so that he could pin Tommy down again.

Scruffy wasn't sure what to do. Nobody but the family had ever come to the house before. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but he had to protect Missy. She was definitely the nicest of the family. He decided to just continuing holding down the interloper.

The same squeaky truck the family had for years came down the road.

"What's going on?" Pa demanded as he jumped out of the truck.

"My friend, Tommy, came to visit and Scruffy attacked him," Missy explained.

"Lee, throw him in the cage," Pa commanded.

"What are you going to do to him, Daddy?" Missy asked.

"We'll hunt him of course. Couldn't find anyone in town."

"No, Daddy!"

Lee was pulling Tommy up from underneath Scruffy.

"Hunt me?" Tommy said. He tried to shake Lee off, but was unable to. He found himself dragged to a dirty old barn and thrown into a cage.

"Well, we told him we were going to hunt him, so he'll have to be the second victim," Pa decided.

"But, you can't. I love him," Missy said. True, she had never said more than three words to him at a time, but she was 14. It didn't take much to be in love.

"I'm sorry, Missy. We just can't take the chance."

Missy realized that they didn't have their first hunt yet, so she had at least a couple of days.

Scruffy followed Missy into the house and lay down on the kitchen floor. Missy usually gave him some extra table scraps and it was almost time for supper.

SSS

Two Days Later

"Dad, a 14 year old boy disappeared in Hibbing. It's the thing that killed Sam. It's back," Dean said.

"Let's go," John said. They had been waiting for that thing to come back. John had noticed that disappearances always came in twos. One and then about five days later, another.

"Good thing we're only a couple of hours away," Dean said. "We can get started right away."

John hoped they found whatever it was this time. He had turned Mary's death into a lifelong obsession for revenge and he didn't want Dean to do the same thing with Sam's.

SSS

"I think whatever is happening is happening in these backroads," Dean said.

"OK, let's look around," John said. He looked around. It looked pretty hopeless. There were going to be miles and miles of farms around here.

SSS

"Tommy," Missy said as she crept into the barn. "I'm so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Let me go," Tommy said.

"I can't do that," Missy said.

"They said they were going to hunt me," he said in a total panic.

"I know. That's what they do," Missy admitted.

"You mean they've done this before?" Tommy asked, shocked.

"Sure. They do it every year. Well, they didn't do it last year, but every other year they have. It's a tradition. "

"Christmas is a tradition. This is just sick," Tommy said in disgust.

"I really wish you hadn't come over here. I tried to talk them out of hunting you. Can you please forgive me?"

"The only way I can forgive you is if you let me go," Tommy begged. He wasn't even sure he could forgive her then, but she seemed desperate for forgiveness. Maybe she would do it.

"I can't," Missy said.

"Can't or won't?" Tommy asked. It was possible she didn't know where the key was. If that was the case, he would have to get her to go to the cops.

"Won't, I guess. I can't betray my family like that."

"Juliette went against her family to be with Romeo." Tommy thought that might not have been the best analogy considering where they ended up, but they had just finished reading the play and it's what came into his head.

"I can't," Missy said, and ran out of the barn crying.


	2. Chapter 2

Scruffy was out laying in the sun again. Missy was in the barn talking to that boy in his old cage. He heard voices approaching. He got up on all fours and started growling and approaching the road. The voices came closer. They sounded familiar.

He was going to attack, like he did that other boy. The family had been so proud and praising of him, but he thought these were friends. He couldn't remember them, but they seemed familiar.

"Sammy?" the younger of the two asked.

Sammy. That sounded familiar. Somehow it seemed more right than Scruffy.

He was trying to remember why when Pa and Lee came out of the house. "What's going on out here?" Pa asked. "Scruffy, attack." The really good thing about having a human who thought he was a dog was that he understood all your commands whether you had taught them to him or not.

Scruffy was confused. Pa was telling him to attack, but he knew that wasn't right.

Dean and John pulled their guns out as Pa and Lee approached. "What the hell did you to my son?" John asked.

"Your son?" Pa laughed. "That there's our dog, Mister."

They heard a rifle shot behind them. "Drop 'em," Jared said. He had just come in from the fields. When he had assessed the situation, he approached quietly and got a drop on the two intruders.

Pa quickly pulled out a hand gun and grabbed Scruffy's collar and yanked him back hard by it. Scruffy whimpered. It had been a long time since they had punished him. It was his fault. He should have attacked when Pa told him to. He felt the gun being placed next to his temple. He knew what guns did. He had seen the family shooting stray dogs and cats. He tried pulling away, but that only made the collar choke him more.

"You heard him, boys. Put your guns down," Pa said.

Dean and John looked at each other and then put their guns down. They were outnumbered and there was no way they would get a shot off before the old man had a chance to shoot Sam.

As soon as their guns were on the ground, Lee and Jared approached them and forced them to the barn. Pa dragged Scruffy by the collar behind them. All three of them were shoved in the second cage.

"Well, looks like we'll be doing things a bit differently this years, boys," Pa said.

"Yeah. How?" Jared asked.

"We need to get this over with. We'll chain them all together tomorrow and hunt them. Scruffy will really slow them down," Pa laughed.

"I hate to do that to Scruffy," Jared admitted. Scruffy had been a good dog, even though it had been weird.

"Well, maybe we'll just shoot Scruffy humanely. We can decide tomorrow. Let's go have supper and get some sleep. We've got a hunt tomorrow."

They left.

"Sammy?" Dean asked again. Sam barked. "What's wrong with him, Dad?"

"He thinks he's a dog," Tommy answered from the next cage. "This whole family is crazy."

"Sam, you're not a dog. You're name is Sam and you're a human," Dean said, feeling like an idiot for having to explain that and knowing that a simple explanation of that probably wouldn't do the trick.

Scruffy had a memory of himself saying, "My name is Sam and I'm a human." But that didn't make any sense. Pets can't talk. He remembered Pa told him that.

"Come on, Sammy. Talk to us," John said. "Please."

This was ridiculous. Pets can't talk, Scruffy thought. It might not hurt to try, though. He hoped it wasn't a trick to get him into trouble. "Who are you?" he asked slowly, each word feeling like a foreign language.

"That's really good, Sam," John said. "I'm your father. This is your brother, Dean. Don't you remember us?"

"I think so," he answered. "But not really." He was gaining more confidence in talking. It was so odd. He was a dog. He wasn't supposed to be able to talk. And if he was a dog, why was his father a person. Maybe he wasn't maybe he was a dog, too. "Are you a dog?" he asked.

Dean groaned in frustration. He thought Sam would know he was a person if he was talking. Apparently not.

"No, Sammy. I'm not a dog and neither are you," John said as gently as he could. He was also frustrated. Plus, they had to find a way out of these cages by morning.

"Are you sure?" Sam asked. Why would the family have lied to him?

"Yes, Sam, I'm sure," John yelled.

"Dad," Dean said, when Sam flinched.

Scruffy was afraid. He knew that yelling was usually followed by hitting—or worse. Scruffy cowered in the corner and stretched out to sleep. He still wasn't sure why, but he knew it was important that he stretch out when he lay down.

"Sam," Dean began.

"Leave him be for now," John said. "We need to figure out a way out of here."

The door creaked open. "Missy, go away," Tommy said. He had kind of liked her, but now the sight of her disgusted him.

"My dad and brothers just went to bed," Missy said as she put the key in the lock and turned it.

"I thought you weren't going to help me," Tommy said.

"I wasn't. But, I can't let them kill you. You have to take me with you, though."

"Yeah, sure thing," John said. It wasn't this girl's fault her family was crazy and he wasn't going to leave some kid with these people. Who knew what they would do to her when they found out she had let them go.

Scruffy stayed cowered in the cage. It didn't sound like Missy had permission to let him out. He didn't want either one of them to get in trouble.


	3. Chapter 3

Scruffy stayed cowered in the cage. It didn't sound like Missy had permission to let him out. He didn't want either one of them to get in trouble.

"Come on, Sam," Dean said, when he noticed he wasn't moving. He just wanted to get Sam out of there. Since it was humans, the cops could take care of it.

Scruffy decided to stay where he was.

"Come on, Scruffy. It's OK. Pa said we could go for a ride with these guys," Missy lied.

"Scruffy?" Dean asked.

"My brother named him," Missy said.

Dean shook his head. He wasn't so sure about taking her with them. He might feel the urge to kill her for treating Sam like a dog. But, then he noticed that Sam was coming. She might be useful after all.

"You need to get that collar off of him," Missy said. "It's electrified to go off at the property boundaries."

Luckily, those idiot hillbillies hadn't thought to search them for additional weapons, so Dean took out a knife and carefully cut the collar off of Sam. "Let's go," he said.

They had parked about a mile away. And they all ran as quietly as they could. Dean was surprised how well Sam ran on four legs. "Might work better if you stood up," he noted.

"Pets walk on all fours," Scruffy said. If there was one thing he knew it was the rules.

"Well, you also said that pets don't talk. So, you must not be a pet," Dean pointed out. They had reached the car.

"Where do you live?" John asked Tommy.

"End of the road."

John dropped Tommy off and told him to call the cops but asked him not to say anything about them.

"Sure. You saved my life. If you don't want the cops to know about you that's cool with me," he said.

Missy started to get out of the car. "Where are you going?" Tommy asked.

"With you," Missy said simply.

"I don't think so."

"But, I let you go," she said.

"One, you took your sweet time about it. I was in there for almost three days. Two, you're a freak with a freak family. Three, just looking at you makes me sick." With that Tommy ran into his house to call the cops. Missy burned with rage.

"It's alright. You can come with us," John said.

Scruffy barked happily. He liked Missy.

With everyone situated in the car again and heading off to a nearby town, Dean asked, "Why does he think he's a dog?"

"Well, my father and brothers told him he was one. I don't really know why. Anyway, they were really mean to him, beating him all the time and then one day, he got hit in the head and started acting like he really thought he was a dog."

Scruffy listened to all of this. Could that be true? Was he really not a dog? "So, I'm not a dog?" he asked Missy.

"No, you're not a dog," Missy said, patiently.

They pulled into a motel parking lot. "Think you can go into the room on two feet, Sam?" Dean asked.

"I'll try," Sam responded. His name was Sam. Not Scruffy. It did seem more right. He walked into the room on two feet, but it was very unsteady. Dean walked next to him, to help hold him up. "Thanks," Sam said.

SSS

Tommy's mom called the cops as soon as he got in the door. They were at their house in less than five minutes and Tommy was telling his story. He told them Missy had changed her mind and let him out and ended up running away from home. He left out all mention of the other three "prey."

"That's Kathleen's family. I find it very difficult to believe that those good folks would be mixed up in something like this, young man," one of the cops said, sternly.

Tommy couldn't believe this. They weren't going to believe him.

SSS

Lee woke up. It was still a couple of hours before dawn. He decided he would give the prey their last meal. No fun hunting half-starved animals. He had a feeling this would be their last hunt anyway. They had had too many close calls.

He went out to the barn and froze. The cages were both open and the key was sticking in the panel. Had they decided to hunt without him? He ran in the house. Pa and Jared were just getting up. "They're gone," he said.

"Who's gone?" Pa asked.

"All of them," Lee answered.

"How'd they get out?" Jared asked. They had never once had an escape. Not in five generations of hunting.

"The key was in the panel. It had to be Missy."

"MISSY!" Pa yelled as he headed to her room. She was going to get the whooping of her life. "She's gone," he said, when he came back seconds later.

"What should we do?" Jared asked.

Pa grabbed his shotgun. "We bring her back and kill her friends."

SSS

"Fine. We'll check it out," the cop finally said after interrogating the boy for hours.

Tommy was pretty ticked off. He was the victim here and he was being treated like the criminal.

The cops left and Tommy and his mother sat up in the kitchen. Soon their door flew open.

"Where's my daughter?" Pa demanded waving his shotgun all over the place.

Tommy's mother screamed. Pa shot her just to shut her up.

"You're next unless you tell me where my daughter is."

Tommy looked at his dead mother. He couldn't believe anyone would do such a thing.

"Answer me, boy," Pa said as he grabbed Tommy and pushed him against the wall. Tommy could smell his foul breath. He wondered if the old man had ever once brushed his teeth.

"She went with those other guys," Tommy answered. He had no real reason to protect Missy.

"Where'd they go?"

"I don't know." Tommy received a rifle butt to his stomach for his ignorance.

"Tell me!"

"I don't know," Tommy insisted.

Pa believed him. He took the rifle and shot Tommy in the head. "Come on," he said to Lee and Jared.

"Shouldn't we clean up this mess?" Lee asked. Being married to a deputy he had learned a lot about police work.

"No need. We can't come back here. It's over. We'll set up somewhere else."

Jared and Lee exchanged a glance. They had no money. How were they going to set up somewhere else?

"First things first," Pa said, almost hearing his sons' thoughts.


	4. Chapter 4

"I have to go out and get some stuff," John said. They needed food and some medical supplies. "Stay here with your brother and the girl."

Dean and John had woken up shortly after dawn, but Sam and Missy were still sleeping away.

"Speaking of the girl, what are we going to do about her?" Dean whispered. He didn't want to keep her around. She might have done the right thing in the end, but she had had a whole year to do the right thing and hadn't.

"Look, Dean, I know how you feel, but it's really not her fault. She's just a kid. It was her family."

"That's bull," Dean said. "How many people are dead because she did nothing?"

"We'll talk when I get back," John said and left. He couldn't really argue with Dean's thinking, but at the same time, they did owe her. They should probably find out what Sam wanted to do.

When his father left, Dean decided to grab a shower. Sam and Missy would probably sleep for a while.

Sam heard the shower starting and woke up. He looked around and saw that he and Missy were alone.

"Missy," he said to wake her up. He had almost barked. It was going to take a while to get used to being a person. He wished he could remember his father and brother. He felt so disconnected from everyone right now.

Missy woke up and had to remember where she was. This was the first time in her life she had woken up anywhere but in her own bed.

When Sam saw she was awake, he asked the question that had been on his mind. "Why did you treat me like a dog?"

Missy shrugged. "Everybody else was."

Sam wasn't entirely sure if that made sense or not. Missy was always very nice to him, but on the other hand, she did treat him like a dog and apparently he wasn't one.

"Are you mad at me?" Missy asked. Sometimes she had felt like Scruffy was her only friend. That was probably why she had gone along with the whole dog thing. Dogs didn't get mad at you. Or if they did, they couldn't tell you about it.

"I'm not sure," he admitted.

SSS

Pa and the boys drove to the next town. When Pa saw a motel, he pulled over.

"Are we going to stay here?" Jared asked. They had only been driving a couple of hours.

"I'm going to show them a picture of Missy. See if they've seen her," he said.

He went into the front office alone. There was a guy that didn't look too much different than Pa sitting at the front desk.

"You seen this girl?" Pa asked.

"Maybe," the man said.

Pa knew that was a yes, but the man wanted money. Pa went out to his truck and got his rifle instead. He went back in and pointed it at the man. "This refresh your memory?"

"She's in room 14."

Pa was going to shoot the man, but then thought better of it. No need to sound the alarm. He took the gun and swung it at the man's head instead. The man fell to the floor unconscious.

"She's in room 14," Pa repeated to Jared and Lee. They quickly found the room, and Jared kicked the door in.

Dean was just getting out of the shower when he heard something. He quickly grabbed a towel to wrap around his waist. He wished he had brought his gun with him into the bathroom.

Pa lifted up his shotgun to shoot Scruffy, or whatever his name was.

"No!" Missy yelled and jumped in front of Sam, taking the bullet for herself.

"Missy!" Sam and Pa yelled at the same time. Sam was right next to her and knelt down beside her. Dean was just getting out of the bathroom. His gun was in his bag. He was debating on whether he should go for it with three gun-toting hillbillies in the room.

John had just pulled in and he ran in. He saw the old man and Sam crying over Missy's body. Nobody noticed John's arrival.

Pa lifted his gun towards Sam. "This is all your fault."

A shot rang out. "No!" Dean yelled, until he noticed that Sam was still kneeling and the old man was crumpled to the floor.

Jared and Lee spun around to see John. They both lifted their guns up. John shot Lee. Jared was taking aim, when Sam instinctively lunged at him. John tried to get a shot, but Sam was in the way.

Dean hurriedly reached for his gun, while keeping a hand on the towel, but he couldn't get a shot either. Jared and Sam fell in a tumble and Sam hit his head on the bureau. John took his shot. John and Dean both raced for Sam. John felt for a pulse. It was steady. "He'll be OK. Move. We've got to get out of here before the cops show."

They both knew with all that gunfire, it was probably only a matter of a minute if that. Dean grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and was dressed inside of 30 seconds, except for shoes, which he grabbed along with all three of their bags. John was already in the process of getting Sam to the car.

SSS

They had driven a few hours until they were over the state line. They had listened to the police scanner and hadn't heard anything about a car fitting the Impala's description. Once over the state line John thought it was safe to stop.

"He still out?" John asked.

Dean was about to answer him when Sam moaned.

"You OK?" Dean asked.

"Dean?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, Sammy."

"Dad?"

"Are you OK, son?" John asked. Head wounds were nothing to mess with and Sam definitely seemed out of it.

"Yeah, what happened?"

"You hit your head."

"But, how did you find me?" Sam asked. The last thing he remembered, that idiot family was making him pretend to be a dog. He thought he was getting in trouble and one of them was herding him into the barn and something fell on his head. He didn't remember anything after that.

"What's your name?" Dean asked.

"Sam." Sam figured it was just the usual concussion drill.

"Do you know who we are?"

"Dad and Dean. Didn't we just go through this?" Sam asked.

"Where'd you go to college?" Dean asked, wanting to establish something that wasn't told to Sam in the last couple of days.

"Stanford."

"Sammy's back," Dean said.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Tell you about it later," Dean said.

SSS

When Dean had finished telling Sam about the fact that he actually thought he was a dog, Sam was mortified. He expected all kinds of insults from Dean, but Dean was surprisingly non-mean about the whole thing.

"So, you guys thought I was dead?" Sam asked. He just realized that part of the story. That must have been awful. He knew what he had gone through when Jessica had died.

"Yeah, Sammy. It made me realize that I should have apologized to you a long time ago," John said.

"For what?" Sam asked. If he was ever going to actually get an apology, now was the time.

"For treating you like a soldier. For not caring what you wanted. For kicking you out of the family."

"Why'd you do it?" Sam asked. He had always wondered why his father had gotten so mad at him for wanting to go to school. Lots of families wanted their children to go into the family business, but didn't expel them from the family if they didn't.

"I was scared of what could happen to you, Sam. I still am. I'm scared for Dean, too. I want to protect you forever, but I know that I can't."

"if you were so worried why did you leave me?" Dean asked. That had all gotten glossed over when Sam had gone missing then "died." But, his father had left him.

"To keep you safe. I was closing in on the thing that killed your mother. I've lost its trail big-time by now."

"Well, let's all try to pick it up—together," Sam said.

"Sounds good to me," Dean agreed.

John sighed. "I guess I can't keep you safe forever. Alright. We'll go after this thing together.

The End


End file.
